A bronze crest, ripped out from the monument to Samuel Colt in Colt Park, is in pieces.

Jim Griffin, with The Sam & Elizabeth Colt Industrial and Frontier Heritage Center, says he found what was left of the plaque at a scrap yard near the park, over by the Sports and Medical Sciences Academy, which is a Hartford magnet school.

The thief stole the historical piece some time last week.

"We're really happy to get it back, it needs some repair, the good news on this is we've already been in touch with some real craftsmen who say that they can help us put it back together," Griffin said. "It'll look they say like new."

Griffin says the scrap yard identified the suspected thief, who has been bringing scrap there for a long time, and that information has been turned over to Hartford Police.